Android Operated Smart Home

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This paper describes an investigation into the potential for remote controlled operation
of home automation systems. It considers problems with their implementation,
discusses possible solutions through various network technologies and indicates how to
optimize the use of such systems. The home is an eternal, heterogeneous distributed
computing environment (Greaves, 2002) which certainly requires a careful study before
developing any suitable Home Automation System (HAS) that will accomplish its
requirements. Nevertheless the latest attempts at introducing Home Automation Systems
in actual homes for all kinds of users are starting to be successful thanks to the
continuous standardization process that is lowering the prices and making devices more
useful and easier to use for the end user. Even so several important issues are always to
be handled strictly before developing and installing a Home Automation System; factors
like security, reliability, usefulness, robustness and price are critical to determine if the
final product will accomplish the expected requirements.
Operating of electrical appliances in home through Android mobile phones.
The controlling is done wirelessly.
Using the Wi-Fi feature.
Android boasts a healthy array of connectivity options.
The controlling device of the whole system is a Microcontroller.
Server module, 4-Relays board and LCD display are interfaced to the
Microcontroller
The data received by the Server from Android smart phone is fed as input to the
controller.
The controller acts accordingly on the Relays to switch connected electrical
appliances.
Controller is loaded with a program written using Embedded C language.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE SURVEY
2.1 Alexandru-Corneliu Olteanu, George-Daniel Oprina, Nicolae Pu
and Sven Zeisberg, Enabling mobile devices for home automation
using ZigBee
In this paper author describes the use of android phones for home automation
using ZigBee technology.He investigates several methods to equip an Android device
with a dongle capable of Zig Bee communication. Proposes a scalable architecture, with
three abstraction layers, that scales over multiple communication channels.
Disadvantages
Network Range: ZigBee is restricted to Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN),
reaching 10-30meter in usual applications.
Data transfer speed: Maximum speed in ZigBee networks is only 250kbps, fairly low
than the lowest Wi-Fi offers.

2.2 Nicholas Mulhern, Neil McCaffrey, Nicholas Beretta, Eugene

Chabot PhD, Ying Sun PhD University of Rhode Island Department of
Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering Kingston, RI 02881,
USA, Designing Android Applications using Voice Controlled
Commands For Hands free interaction with Common Household
Devices
In this paper the author describes about utilizing assistive technology to aid persons
with neuromuscular disabilities.Communicating with house hold appliances through an
android phone with Bluetooth technology.
Disadvantages

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Bluetooth only has a range of 15 to 30 feet depending on the device.Bluetooth uses the
battery power of a particular device in order to operate

2.3

David Huggins-Daines, Mohit Kumar, Arthur Chan, Alan W

Black, Mosur Ravishankar, and Alex I. Rudnicky pocket sphinx: a

free, real-time continuous speech recognition system for hand-held
devices
In this paper, author presents a preliminary case study on the porting and optimization
of CMU SPHINX-II. Its a popular open source large vocabulary continuous speech
recognition (LVCSR) system to hand-held devices.
Disadvantages

Need to train users for the efficient recognition of the speech.

Not feasible for disabled persons.

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CHAPTER 3
Android Operated Smart Home

The concept of automation has existed for many years. It began with a student
connecting two electric wires to the hands of an alarm clock in order to close a circuit of
a battery and light bulb. Later, companies developed automated systems of their own to
control alarms, sensors, actuators and video cameras and, in so doing, created the first
automated buildings. The term intelligent home followed. Due to the obvious
advantages of these systems, their influence on the conventional home was predictable
and finally, in 1988, the term domotics was coined. A modern definition of Domotics
could be the interaction of technologies and services applied to different buildings with
the purpose of increasing security, comfort, communications and energy savings
(Moraes et al., 2000). At the beginning automated devices were independent or,
sometimes, grouped in small independent systems. But the idea of giving them
interoperability using a common language keeps on growing up, consequently
following such idea the first Home Automation Systems (HASs) appeared bringing a
new concept of a home network full of possibilities, but this included also new factors
to bear in mind.
In addition, a strong reason why of HASs are becoming popular is because they
are plenty of attractive features that can easily lure companies to enter quickly this
emerging market, also they represent a great research opportunity in creating new fields
in engineering, architecture and computing (Huidobro and Millan, 2004). However,
these new technologies are still in their early stages with a lack of robust standards

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creating compatibility issues affecting their reliability. Another problem is that these
systems are not always fully accepted by final users, especially the old and disabled
arguably the ones that need it the most. It is the goal of researchers to find out how to
introduce home automation into our lives so as to only affect us positively. As an
example, one effort to make these systems usable and affordable by any user helped the
use of old, cheap and simple technologies like the X-10 protocol to transfer data in the
home-network, in relative terms this approach created low cost HASs taking the
advantage that X-10 technology do not require additional wiring. Even though newest
technologies are constantly coming and a constant migration from wired to wireless is
gradually affecting technologies involved within the home network possibly
corroborating what Myers, Brad A. et al said that the future home network will have
ubiquitous embedded computation with an increasing number of appliances having
wireless communication (Myers et al., 2004).
In fact, there are many recent tendencies to integrate various kinds of embedded
devices and consumer appliances into software systems (Rigole et al., 2003), tendencies
that have emerged from the ideas of pervasive computing. This evolution offers many
useful possibilities in Domotics. Lately, it is being proved that Domotics has many
interesting fields, and among them using remote-Controlled HASs to control the home
network is one of the most challenging. The possibility of having ubiquitous access to
many devices within a building at any time, from anywhere, resolves many of the
problems that users often face when they return home, saving a significant amount of
time. It also notably increases the security in any kind of building and it may even
provide a backup control system for local system breakdowns. This ubiquitous access
could be achieved from many different digital devices and it is known that the network
hierarchy has been rapidly moving lower in the chain towards smaller and more
personal devices (Greaves, 2002). Considering latest tendencies, everything points at
prompt remote control standardization in home networks

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3.1. Home network remote-controlling benefits

The increasing ubiquity of heterogeneous computing devices such as laptop
computers, palms, mobiles etc. shows that users prefer a ubiquitous access of a system
rather than to be uncomfortably forced to go physically to the nearest control point.
Remote control saves time and everybody is aware of this, it also provides increased
security and flexibility. For example, if the user receives a SMS saying that there was an
intrusion, he/she can connect to the internet and watch the video cameras inside the
house to see what happens, another example could be the possibility to turn on the
heaters from the distance using a mobile, laptop or PDA so as soon as the user reaches
the house it will be hot already, this could be really useful especially in cold countries.
As a matter of fact security will always be a main priority in all families, and prevention
is better than cure. By receiving alerts in a portable device user is informed of all
possible issues occurring in the house and it gives the possibility to deal with it using
different ways of control like instant messaging, since many users are already familiar
with the concepts and user interfaces of instant messaging. Many computers and mobile
devices also already have instant messaging clients installed (Aurell, 2005).

3.2. After considering benefits and issues

Even with all issues related to remote-controlled HASs it seems that the benefits
are just good enough to continue advancing in this field, also just recently, organizations
have been formed to ensure network and device interoperability. For example, the
adoption of the 802.11b standard has made wireless data networks one of the hottest
newcomers in the current wireless market. As a result, in one hand remote-controlled
HASs represent in Domotics a great opportunity to improve human computer
interaction thanks to its ubiquitous access, but in the other hand they represent one of
the most challenging environments due to involved security issues and relative
complexity of portable devices.

3.3. Home network remote-controlling issues

Interoperability refers to the capability of devices of different types and from
different manufacturers to communicate and cooperate. Scalability refers primarily to
scalability in terms of geographical distance and location independence. In the context
of offering remote access as a service, scalability in terms of capacity would also be an
issue. Security is probably the most important issue among them and the hardest to deal

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with regarding the media used in wireless communications. Finally, Limited Services
due to bandwidth limitations of wireless networks in comparison with other wired
technologies.
HASs are not being well accepted by old or disabled users and, in some cases,
users dont like computers controlling their lives. While appliances get more
computerized with more features, their user interfaces get harder to use forcing users to
come back to the old behaviour with their appliances again (Nichols et al, 2001), this
lack of acceptance is worse when users have to use complex hand-held/portable devices
or small interfaces. And the existence of multiple standards is a major obstacle for
deployment of wireless networks, while GSM is the only widely supported standard in
Europe and Asia for mobile communications, multiple standards are in use in the U.S.

3.3.

Modules

3.3.1. Software Modules

1. Admin
The main control authority of the whole system is the admin.He can Add or remove
devices. Responsible for dealing with user accounts. Initiates the Server
communication.
2.

User

Needs to be registered by the Admin with a username an password in the System. Uses
Android application to login to the system. Able to view the available devices. Can
control the devices from the Android application.
3.3.2. Hardware Modules
1. Regulated Power Supply.
2. Microcontroller.
3. Android smart phone.
4. PC/Server module.

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5. 4-Relay board with driver.

6. Crystal oscillator.
7. Reset.

3.4 Advantages
Can communicate with the home appliances from anywhere if client
and server is connected to same network. And is available.

Helps disabled people

Helps us in utilizing minimum energy by helping us switch off

appliances just through a touch command.

Easy to use.

Integrates all the electrical appliances so that they can be controlled

together when needed.

CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSION
Android smart phone is used as a remote control for operating the electrical
appliances. Android boasts a healthy array of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and wireless data over a cellular connection. The controlling of appliances
can be done either by using a Server Module. The controlling of appliances can be done
even when the user is away from the home. Multiple users can be added to provide
access to the control of appliances. Helpful for physically disabled persons specifically
those who are unable to walk. Since this is a new field of investigation, the results of the
project are likely to be worthy of further analysis. The completion of a whole cycle of
control between a remote device and the building will be critical for the success of the
research; once control is achieved a meticulous study about how users and the system
interact has to be done. It is important to clarify that this research does not exclude local
control of HASs - it is simply focused on remote control as an important field for HASs

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in the future. To conclude, this research should help other researchers to achieve their
goals with their future HAS projects and it will contribute positively to the E-Home
community.

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